Help with birthday! m17x config

Hi everybody, I've created this thread because now that the cf 5870 are open I'd like to know what would be the better m17x in terms of performance/price.

I'm from Portugal, but the AW portuguese site is the English site , so I'll pay in pounds but I don't care just wanna get this sweat peace of machine in my hands!

Please help!

 

Happy birthday!

For starters, are you a DIY upgrader? If you plan on upgrading the cpu in the future, buying the stock i5, or even the i7 620m is a good idea. The price is low and still gives you good performance until you replace the CPU.
I'm not familiar with the SSD's that Alienware issues, but http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ers-samsung-pm800-ssd-trim-now-available.html has some info on them. You may want to grab yourself a nice intel x-25 or vertex le to upgrade post purchase.
RAM isn't anything too major imo. 4=6=8 for gaming, so unles you do some heavy multitasking, stick with the stock 4Gb of RAM.
If you' re getting an R2, do not miss out on the rgb led screen.
Warranty is up to you, but i recommend at least 1year advanced.

Happy hunting

 

I would go with either the i7 720 or 620 for CPU.
The single 5870 is a good performer, though everyone is ordering the CF 5870.
While SSDs are in fact very fast, they can be expensive, while HHDs don't perform as well, they are inexpensive.
If you're only doing gaming, 4GB is sufficient.

 

I've never had an alienware I've discovered this brand 3 years ago but I've never decided when to choose and now I choosed to buy it because it finaly pack all the hardware I want, but I don't know what DIY means, so I can't say if I'll upgrade it later or not maybe if would be more cheaper, would I've to send it to AW to upgrade for me??

 

Happy Birthday! DIY means "Do It Yourself". So if your comfortable upgrading the CPU and GPU yourself in the future, then they are telling you to go the cheaper route and upgrade later when you need it.

 

Oh ok now I get it, but I'm not that secure of me upgrading it by myself so I think I'd prefer ordering it with all configured to last some great years

 

Yeah thats what I did. Although I feel comfortable with upgrading most of the M17x's components myself, its nice to just be able to receive a "beast" of a laptop in the mail and not have to worry about it for a while :smile:

 

ehehe I'm going to have 19 these saturday, I wanted to order it sooner but the m17x didn't had the cf, so I'll wait on litle won't make me suffer I just wanna know what config should I do, can you help??

 

I think lordqarlyn said it best. I would go CF 5870 instead of a single 5870 if your looking more long term. I held out on the SSD so I can wait for the price to come down a bit on them, and also the storage space is one of the easiest things to upgrade.

 

Get the best. Upgrade to max an everything.

 

I'm sory lordqarlyn but your quote didn't show at the start I don't know why, thank you for the config I think I'll only change that for the cf and one more thing what should I choose in terms of warranty??

Edit: Can I choose the raid with performance of 1 terabyte and than put an ssd :x ?

 

At least 1 year advanced

 

I went with the one year, I'll extend later on. Lower upfront costs.

Sorry, but the m17x has only 2 drive bays, so you can't have an SSD with HDD RAID.

What I am considering is replacing one of my HDD with SSD, use it for OS and applications, and keep the HDD for data files.

 

So I'm thinking in puting only the HDDs for now and than an SSD, by the way I'm very tempted by the I7 820

 

I went with the 820 due to the higher cache same as 920.

 

This is the config I've in mind what do you think guys:

Alienware M17x MLK Gaming Laptop - Lunar Silver

Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate, 64bit, English

Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 820QM (1.73Ghz, 8MB cache)

2 years Next Business Day + Accidental Damage

CrossFire™ Dual 1GB ATI® Mobility Radeon™ HD 5870

4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]

1TB (7200 RPM) Free Fall Sensor Raid 0 "Stripe" Dual HDD - (2x500GB)

17in Wide UXGA (1920x1200) - Beyond HD (1200p) RGBLED

Blu-Ray ROM combo (Blu-ray read only, DVD, CD read & write) Slot Load Drive

Intel® Wireless LAN 6300 3x3 802.11a/b/g/n card (EUR)

9-cell 85Whr Lithium Ion battery

A life hardware dream

 

Looks a lot like my setup!! I also went with the 820qm. Figured it would be a good compromise between the 720 and 920. I also tried to save a little money and didn't go with the Blu-ray drive. I figured I wouldn't be watching to many blu-rays on my laptop.

 

Eheh great laptops I've seen that you put 640gb raid 0 just for the curiosity why did your prefer that to 1 tera?

 

To be honest there is no way i'm filling up 640 gigs anyway. I have around 300 gigs of storage on my p.o.s. toshiba and haven't filled it up yet. There was no need for me to go overboard with the storage. I'm planing on replacing the primary HDD to SSD in the future for bootup and applications.

 

Well I really do fill a lot of space so I think I'll do it like you but with the 1 tera so I can have 500 gb after replacing the HDD for the SSD

EDIT: how many time does a m17x takes to comme? and one thing do I have permission to get those famous discounts of AW??

 

Guys didn't the m17x had that sweet metal plate with the possibility to choose the name to put in there??

 

not if you buy it outside of the us
the plate is stil there but instead of custom writing it says "m17x"

 

damm I really wanted that plate , has your m17x arrived?

 

I bought my AW 2 years ago from UK and it came with a personalised name plate, so unless they changed it, it can be done.

 

Yeah it definitely still possible. Mine has my name

 

The difference between Win 7 Ultimate and Professional is data encrypting and language. If you don't need either, you can save a little by going with Win 7 Pro.

 

Thank you Msashi, less money to pay : )

But in the configuration web page I can't find it

I hope there still exists that option because I want to put my name on that sweet laptop

 

It should be the first tab under "Optimize Performance". On the US site at least.

 

How is personalising your name on an Alienware going to optimize performance

 

I like it!!

 

Thank lordqarlyn I'll go to heaven when he arrives I haven't ordered it yet because of the money conversion and asking for a credit card but it won't take that much time

 

Hi guys I kind have a problem with AW I can't regist myself on the website for doing the order because they won't let me put my data, being Portuguese, but I'm attention I did this on the Portuguese AW website , what should I do?

 

HELP! HELP ME A LOT! I'm trying to order the m17x and I just can't the alienware is making me disy with so many turns they tell me to do.

I'll explain:

1ª Alienware Portuguese Website is in pounds and the power cord is from the United Kindgom, but when I called to them today they told me that I could change but I'd only order it by online mode. But than the women says me to call at a number of the portuguese dell.

2ª the portuguese dell doesn't has any alienware department so I'm in a labirint

What should I do, I'm losing my mind with this confusions